Tamils

The Tamils are a Dravidian ethnic group native to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in the south of the country, and the island of Sri Lanka. The Tamils claimed to be the descendants of the aboriginal Naga and Yaksha peoples of the island, and they are one of the oldest and largest ethnolinguistic groups in the world. In 2016, the world Tamil population was around 76,000,000 people, with 60,783,814 living in India, 3,135,770 in Sri Lanka, 1,800,000 in Malaysia, and 188,591 in Singapore. Most of them practice Hinduism (especially the worship of the god Murugan), while minorities practice Christianity, Islam, Jainism, or Buddhism.